The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Many mobile platforms (such as trains, ships, aircraft and automobiles) communicate and exchange information directly between the mobile platform and a central control station over a data link. One specific type of information that is communicated over the data link is Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Contract (ADS-C) data, also sometimes referred to as ADS-A. ADS-C uses the various systems aboard the aircraft to provide aircraft identification, position, velocity, intent, and meteorological data. This data can be transmitted to the Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP), airline operations control center or other users for the purposes of establishing and predicting aircraft position and gathering data on the air traffic environment (e.g. current meteorological information). ADS-C reports are generated in response to commands, called contract requests, issued by the collecting system. The contract request identifies the types of information and the conditions under which reports are to be transmitted from the aircraft back to the ground.
ADS-C is historically collected by only ANSPs or airline operation control centers. For the collecting system to establish contract requests with a specific flight, the aircraft has to have its ADS-C system turned on and within communications range to accept and manage the contracts for the collecting system. The aircraft does not “store” any of the contract requests or corresponding information, so ADS-C data collection cannot be “scheduled” by the collecting system for activation sometime in the future. Rather, the contract requests must be actively managed by the collecting system, requiring the collecting system to actively monitor the flight and formulate contract requests in real-time as the flight progresses.
As most potential collecting systems neither have the required addressing data to request ADS-C data from the aircraft, nor the required knowledge of the location of the aircraft at any given time to request the data, these potential collecting systems have to work with the ANSPs or airlines to collect the necessary data needed for their analysis, security monitoring, or other purposes. This situation normally leaves the potential other users of ADS-C data unable to gain access to the data they require, since doing so requires system changes to the ANSP or airline ground systems to collect data types and collect quantities of data they typically have not been provisioned to collect. In addition, the collection of this data may impose unacceptable workload increases and tasking changes on the operational staff utilizing and managing the ANSP systems as they are asked to execute tasks outside their normal duties to oversee the additional data collection.
As a result, the potential users of the ADS-C data are unable to collect the data they need. Other users, such as security systems, data fusion systems, and analytical systems not directly associated with an operational ANSP or airline, are also unable to tap the data available through the ADS-C functions on existing aircraft. In addition, various other similar data types and functions generated during the operation of the mobile platform, such as Airline Operational Control (AOC) messaging in the example of a commercial aircraft based application, are also generally unable to be accessed by potential users of the data.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a system and method for collecting and analyzing automatic dependent surveillance data and other types of data generated by the mobile platforms, from the mobile platforms, in which the system is responsive to analyze, display, and distribute the collected data for use by a wide range of users.